Judith Schafernak, 1941-2013

Award-winning gardener was featured in national magazines

Judith Schafernak's gardens were featured in national magazines, and she became a master flower show judge, landscape design critic and lecturer on floral design.

Her accomplishments defied the fact she had battled rheumatoid arthritis since she was 2.

"You never would have known that Judy had lived since childhood with a crippling, painful disability," said Judy Cimaglio, a fellow longtime member of the Plum Grove Garden Club. "I have never known someone with the strength, willpower and stamina Judy had."

Over the years, Mrs. Schafernak organized numerous flower shows at McCormick Place in Chicago. In 1977 she won "Best Show" nationwide from the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and she was president of Garden Clubs of Illinois from 1991 to 1993.

"She was brilliant, a multitasker, persistent, persuasive and excelled at every project took on," Cimaglio said. "A lifelong love of flowers and interest in gardening led Judy up the garden path to the presidency of Garden Clubs of Illinois."

Mrs. Schafernak, 72, of Palatine, died Friday, Nov. 29, at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The cause was complications related to rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disorder that leads to inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues and also affects other organs.

"She was very positive, despite the pain she endured, and never lamented her lot in life," said her daughter Daria Hoffman. "As a child she had to take all kinds of medicines, and as she got older she took different drugs that were still in the trial phase. She did whatever was needed to live as normal a life as possible."

Born Judith Theresa Gron, Mrs. Schafernak grew up on Chicago's North Side and graduated from Steinmetz High School. She attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she met her future husband, Dale. The couple lived in Addison before moving to Palatine in 1972.

In the early 1970s, Mrs. Schafernak and her husband joined the Plum Grove Garden Club in Palatine and began cultivating their own garden. He grew vegetables. She grew flowers and herbs. Together they worked on the landscaping.

"They were a team," Hoffman said. "When one needed assistance, the other was right there to help out."

The couple's award-winning gardens were featured in magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens and Traditional Home, Hoffman said.

"People would marvel at the abundance of her floral garden," she said. "Every corner you'd turn to there'd be something beautiful and different. Her mini roses were just gorgeous."

Mrs. Schafernak spent hours tending to her gardens, and up until a few months ago was still pruning and watering her plants.

"She was outdoors almost every day on her little garden cart making sure there wasn't a single weed anywhere," Hoffman said.

Mrs. Schafernak also is survived by two other daughters, Krina Koenen and Melissa Laurenson; a son, Kristian; seven grandchildren; and four stepgrandchildren.